1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to chemical treatment of cellulosic textiles which impart wet and dry wrinkle resistance to cellulosic materials having anion exchange properties. More specifically, this invention relates to a process for the introduction of crosslinks between tertiary amine nitrogen groups in cellulose so that every resultant alkylene group introduced is connected to two quaternary ammonium ions. DEAE-Cotton is reacted with a non-aqueous solution containing an alpha-omega dihaloalkane in a precise manner to yield not only a product with strong-base anion exchange properties attributed to the diquaternary ammonium groups formed, but also a crease-resistant product which is good in both wet and dry conditions because the diquaternary cationic groups share a common alkylene group that crosslinks cellulose chains.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Berni, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,082) teaches the preparation of anion exchange celluloses having isolated quaternary ammonium sites, that is, mono-quaternary ammonium cellulose anion exchangers. Prior art does not teach the simultaneous quaternization of two tertiary amine groups in a cellulose matrix with a common alkylene group that acts as a crosslink while also forming a diquaternary ammonium cellulose anion exchanger. Although the isolated quaternary ammonium groups of the prior art, that is, the monoquaternary ammonium group, impart strong-base anion exchange properties to the cellulose matrix as do the quaternary ammonium groups of the present invention, it is only with the latter groups, as explained in the present invention, that the cotton fabrics can be given wet and dry wrinkle recovery properties. It is also only with the crosslinked diquaternary compounds of the present invention that the fabrics of high nitrogen content (3% to about 4%) are insoluble in water and crease resistant.